WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) - The top U.S. diplomat for
East Asia said on Tuesday that the United States could respond
with sanctions against Chinese officials and enterprises
involved in coercion in the South China Sea.
"Nothing is off the table ... there is room for that,"
David Stilwell, the assistant secretary for East Asia, told a
Washington think tank when asked if sanctions were a possible
U.S. response to Chinese actions.
Stilwell spoke a day after the United States rejected
China's claims to offshore resources in most of the South China
Sea as "completely unlawful," a stance Beijing said raised
tensions in the region.